The present invention relates to a machine for making countertops. More specifically, the present invention is a machine for finishing countertops by assembling an end piece on the countertop and cutting the end piece to a desired size.
Countertops are traditionally made of wood or pressed wood, covered by a veneer or laminate material. Hot melt glue is applied to a back surface of the laminate material. The laminate material is then pressed against the wood or pressed wood portion of the countertop and becomes fixedly attached to the countertop.
Conventional countertops are covered by the laminate material on a top surface, and on at least one end surface and sometimes both end surfaces. In the past, the end pieces of the laminate material were coated with hot melt glue, and then placed against the end of the countertop to be covered by the end piece. Gluing pressure was manually applied to the end piece. An assembler would hold the end piece adjacent the end of the countertop, and roll a roller back and forth across the end piece, applying pressure to the end piece for one to two minutes until the hot melt glue set and glued the end piece to the end of the countertop.
It is also common in assembling countertops that the end pieces of laminate material are larger than required. Therefore, after the end pieces have adhered to the countertop, the laminate end pieces must be trimmed to a desired size. This often requires trimming on either three or four sides. In the past, this trimming was done manually by an assembler after the hot melt glue had set and the end piece was glued to the end of the countertop.
The laminate material is also typically rather sensitive to heat and could thus burn or discolor from the heat generated by a bit in a trimming head. Therefore, in past manual assembly methods, the assembler would not only need to manually trim the end piece to a desired size, but was also required to manually apply lubricant along the cutting path of the trimming head so that the trimming head did not build up enough heat to burn or discolor the laminate surface along the cutting path. The assembler typically applied a mist of lubricant by using an aerosol spray can.
This conventional manual assembly method, including manual application of lubricant, manual application of gluing pressure, and hand trimming of the end pieces of the countertop, is both costly and very time consuming. Further, such a manual assembly method is prone to human errors resulting in a lower quality product.